Bottled Water Facts

Why not bottled water?

The estimated market value of South Africa’s bottled mineral-water market is over R1.7 billion and expected to increase at a staggering rate during the 2010 Soccer World Cup. In 2005 consumption was estimated at 196 million liters of bottled water a year and that figure is expected to rocket to 568 million liters of bottled water sold by the World Cup in 2010.(1) All this money spent on something that is available for free from a tap while there are 1.1 billion people, or 18 per cent of the world’s population, who lack access to safe drinking water.

In 2003 the South African bottled mineral-water market grew by an estimated 20%. This volume includes consumption from all sectors, such as retail, wholesale & imports. With an expected year on year increase of 25% per annum for the foreseeable future. (2) Can you imagine what the environmental impact of this is?

Bottled water uses energy and resources to create packaging for something that runs cheaply and cleanly from the tap in your own home. All the plastic and the energy used for manufacturing and transportation is very hard on the environment. The manufacture of every ton of PET produces around 3 tons of carbon dioxide (CO2).

Not only is it expensive and energy demanding to make bottles, but then to ship the bottled water costs more money and isn’t eco-friendly.

The convenience of bottled water is vastly outweighed by the fact that it takes three times as much water to make a bottle of water than it does to fill it. That’s right – it takes it takes 3-5 liters of water to make just one 1-liter bottle!

96% of bottled water is sold in single-size polyethylene terephthalate (PET) plastic bottles, which end up in city rubbish bins rather than recycling bins. The South African national recycling rate target for all PET bottles for 2010, including soda bottles, is 38 percent. (3)

Worldwide, 2.7 million tons of plastic are used each year to make water bottles, and in the United States, less than 20% of these bottles are recycled.

In America alone, 2.5 million disposable water bottles are thrown out EVERY HOUR… enough to circle the equator every 2.9 days! And 1500 bottles of water end up in landfill every second!

Disposable water bottles take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade, according to the Container Recycling Institute.

It’s expensive! Bottled water costs as much as R2,38 per litre, compared to R0.16 per litre for filtered tap water.

Bottled water costs around as much as a bottle of soda or juice, which obviously requires additional ingredients and processing, yet people pay for it.

Making bottles to meet Americans’ demand for bottled water required the equivalent of more than 17 million barrels of oil in 2006, enough fuel for more than 1 million United States cars for a year, and generated more than 2.5 million tons of carbon dioxide.

Bottled water often contains more bacteria and impurities than tap water, municipal water systems are regulated more stringently than the bottled water industry.

Water is becoming big business, opening up the question – is water a right or commodity? What would you do if a big bottled water company decided to tap into your nearby river, wetland or lake? It’s happening and communities are fighting for their water.

Featured Video

‘For Love Of Water’ – our song!

Endorsed by:

Who is FLOW

Water is the very essence of our being- without water everything will die. Its a blessing we can not do without. Be blessed

Tracy Frayne in South Africa is for love of water.

Brett Canning in South Africa is for love of water.

Kim Coetzee in South Africa is for love of water.

water = life, what more is there to say?

Steph Loy in South Africa is for love of water.

Share the love

Peter Jennins in Angola is for love of water.

I reuse my old bath water

Deborah Weber in South Africa is for love of water.

The Team in South Africa is for love of water.

GCX is committed to saving water in our company and also to teach others, businesses and individuals, how they can save water too. Only by working together, will we achieve the impossible.

Nick Friedman in United Kingdom is for love of water.

How do you act on your love for water?

simon Bannister in South Africa is for love of water.

Every day Im grateful for the simple wonders of the world, this liquid light is truly the essence of life and needs to be treated as such. I am for love of water.

Riet Swanepoel in South Africa is for love of water.

I exercise in the rain

Dylan Preston Govender in South Africa is for love of water.

I have am apart of the environmental club at my school, our job is to provide tips as well to educate the school on ways to conserve water. At home, we do not fill up the bath tub, instead we use the shower and try to be as quick as possible, we do not hose the garden anymore, instead, we use rainwa

Lee Carr in South Africa is for love of water.

I live in a complex and the geyser from a unit in the block is situated in my garage, so we run the overflow pipe into a large plastic drum and use the water for watering the garden.

Pleiades Alberts in South Africa is for love of water.

We are made up of 70% water. Respect yourself, respect water. Water is one of our basic needs in life. It provides nourishment to Mother Earth, who provides food to eat. No water means no plants which means no oxygen and no life. It does have a taste and it tastes good! It's a natural detoxifier. Ou

PETRO COETZER in South Africa is for love of water.

Elizabeth Meiring in South Africa is for love of water.

Timea Kulcsar in South Africa is for love of water.

I bought a FLOW bottle 2 days ago and won't ever use anything else for water. I am slowly getting my friends to stop drinking bottled water too. Spread the word. I love water.

Ken Malherbe in South Africa is for love of water.

I harvest rainwater to water my flowers and grow vegetables at home. I have installed a grey water system. To everyone out there who has access to clean running water from a tap: appreciate every drop, use it as sparingly as possible. To those who I see every day washing down their driveways with p

Matt Pike in United Kingdom is for love of water.

Siegfried Kopp in South Africa is for love of water.

South Africa is a water stressed country, and as individuals, small changes in the way how we consume it can go a long way to securing this most valuable resource for future generations. FLOW offers valuable advice on how we can go about achieving this, and on behalf of BRITA water filters I would l

Katherine Ottilie Twomey in South Africa is for love of water.

I shower, I water plants with a small watering can
I love the gentle, cleansing nature of water - that heavenly element - Sister Water,

Berenice Gie in South Africa is for love of water.

Wilma Jones in South Africa is for love of water.

Marika van Noordwyk in South Africa is for love of water.

We have rainwater tanks to catch water our vegetable garden. Bath and shower water is recycled to the lawn. Water from the washing machine is used on compost heaps.

Anthea Boswell in South Africa is for love of water.

Katie Donald in South Africa is for love of water.

Louisa Botha in South Africa is for love of water.

Tosha Howitt in United Kingdom is for love of water.

i am from the uk, and we have little concept of the situation alot of people around the world face. sadly we are a nation of consumers, and it is deemed somewhat of a status purchase to buy very expensive bottled water, and of course these bottles are plastic and require dispossing of. it starts wit

Robyn de Jager in South Africa is for love of water.

I shower with buckets that catch a lot of the water and then use it to water by herb garden. I don't shower for longer than need be. I switch off the tap when brushing my teeth and do not use water unneccesarily!!